Friday, August 29, 2008

In 2003 and 2004, JIM LEE tackled DC's two big boys; SUPERMAN and BATMAN. The above images are from his first issue of each character. Since then, Lee's imagery has been revisited a couple times.... check em out:

Superman #204, Jim Lee Superman Statue, Ad for DCU Online.

Batman #608, Jim Lee Batman Statue, "Batman: Gotham Knight" dvd

What I found interesting was DC using Jim Lee's artwork/imagery to sell other products... only because that was one of the reasons for the mass artists exodus from Marvel in the 90s that led to the formation of Image Comics. Many of the Image Founding Members were upset that Marvel was using their artwork for Tshirts, posters and other products without giving any residuals to the artists themselves. Now, I realize this is a completely different scenario and circumstances (one being Jim Lee is in partnership with DC).

Neat!eFX Collectibles is set to make a replica helmet based on Ralph McQuarrie's early Darth Vader design! Check it out! I'm not sure the size/scale.

I'll be passing on it myself because I already picked up the kickass McQuarrie Vader statue by Kotobukiya and its wicked sweet.

Looking at those 2 McQuarrie paintings, there's 2 variations of the early helmet. Personally, I prefer the one on the right (which is the one used for the Kotobukiya fig). Not a big fan of the left version - if they made a replica of the right, then maybe I'd get it.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Ran into the local Coffee Bean the other day - it coexists with Krispy Kreme [donuts]. On the wall they had photos of "donut cakes" for parties and special occassions. I had to take a snapshot of the Transformers one.... check out that donut Optimus Prime!!!!

Friday, August 22, 2008

Capital One has a fun commercial airing right now playing off of the themes of Batman with.... THE ARMADILLO!!!! It's pretty fun and I must say I love the costume! Plus, he can roll up into a ball for defense! haha! I want more; tv series and toyline.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Check it out - a copy of the Daily Planet, from SUPERMAN II.... where Lois sharpie'd Superman into Clark Kent.

By the way, if you haven't checked out "SUPERMAN II: THE DONNER CUT" yet, I highly recommend giving it a viewing. While not perfect, I find its much much more enjoyable and less campy than the theatrical non-Donner version!

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

About 5 years(?) ago, toy designers The Four Horsemen unleashed a kickass Masters of the Universe toyline, based on the then-new animated relaunch of He-Man. The designs were a nice blend of anime-influence and more-"realistic" approach in comparison to their original early 80's counterparts. For the most part, every single figure they designed were frickin' awesome.Well, the Horsemen are about to unleash another line of MOTU figures, called CLASSICS LINE. The designs for the Classic Line are a return to the original, stocky-steroid look but tweaked with more "accurate" proportions. Also, remember the killer artwork on the back of the old packaging and mini-comics? Well the Horsemen do too and are incoroporationg some of those visuals into the new sculpts. When I was a kid playing with the old stock versions I always wished their proportions were different and more "action hero". These new sculpts do just that.This line is for the "collector" (ie 30-something dorks like myself who grew up on the original toys) and will not be sold in stores. Instead, they will be sold online with ONE figure released each month at mattycollector.com. Each figure is $20. The first figure will be He-Man in October, followed by Beast-Man in November and SKELETOR in December!

Ha! One of the upcoming 25th Anniversary GIJOE figures isCROC MASTER!!! Not only do I remember him, but I had him. Which is incredibly sad because I think I was like 13 and entering Junior High. Whatever, man. You can take your judgy finger and shove it. Yay Croc Master!!!

....hmmm, just noticed that Batman's villain BANE looks very similar to Croc Master. Bane debuted in 1993, 6 years after Crocky ('87). Then again, they're both capitalizing on the then-rising popularity of professional wrestling (masks). Croc Master looks way cooler.... for the simple lack of the leotard.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

After searching for numerous years, I finally found a copy of NIGHTWING: ROUGH JUSTICE Tpb! It's 1 of 4 collected editions of Scott McDaniel's run on the comic.

For some reason, THIS volume is out of print and cannot be found anywhere; online, conventions, stores across the country during my travels... I even looked for it while in Paris!On the super rare occassion it was found, its priced waaay up. For example, Google Shopping shows 2 copiesavailable by other small stores - for $169 and $340!

But on a lark, I found a used copy online JUST as it was listed, for $20. Score!

You must understand, this is a big deal for a nerd such as I. You see, on my shelf were the other 3 collected editions. As a total fanboy, that gaping hole in the collection would stare at me daily.... mocking me... yelling at me.... torturing me. If you're a huge dork like me, you know of the "Gaping Hole In The Collection" of which I speak and the horrors it can inflict upon your comic soul. So yay for Jimmy!

Now I need to find the HARDCOVER edition of Dark Horse's CONAN, by Busiek & Cord. It's absence on my shelf is KILLING ME!!!

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

These are some scans from an old issue of Toyfare. The short article spotlighted how Kevin Costner's ROBIN HOOD toyline was acutally recycledfigures from Return of the Jedi (1983) and Super Powers (1984). Check em out...

Friday, August 08, 2008

Check out the newest batch of ALIEN related figs from Hot Toys; Dog Alien and some Nostromo crew! At first I thought they were being made by NECA, which made my day. But then I was corrected - they are Hot Toys, which are much much more expensive. Damnit.

The Nostromo dudes are tempting......---------------------------------------------*thanks for the correction, Mr Ma!

I loved VENOM when he first debuted under Todd McFarlane's pencils. But post-McFarlane came Erik Larsen's crazy takeon the character. From there it was all down-hill and I haven't liked the character since that first storyline almost 20 years ago (gah, I'm old!).

In Secret Invasion #3, artist LEINIL FRANCIS YU drew quite possibly the best Venom ever... in my opinion, atleast. I even like that stupid, ridiculous tongue flappin' out of the mouth! So thank you, Yu... for a single panel, I once again enjoyed Venom... alot!

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

With the release of THE DARK KNIGHT(which I won't be able to see until dvd release, gah!) I currently have Bat-Fever... which has led me to have Batman-B&W-Statue-Fever!!!

I was going through my Bat-Section of my comic collection and came across Batman #478 by CAM KENNEDY(of Judge Dredd and Star Wars Dark Empire). I'd like to see a statue based on his rendition of the Caped Crusader!

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

During the lows of the 90s, Rob Liefeld's "Extreme Studios" tried to cash-in on the annoying "Bad Girl" fad with his classy crossover "BABEWATCH". In Babewatch, the main male characters of Liefeld's Universe were turned into scantily clad women.

Well, someone over at Marvel must have been a huge fan because Marvel is currently having their own "Babewatch" of sorts....

Wolverine now has a girl teenage clone (X-23), Ultron became a naked doppleganger of the Wasp, Loki is now a woman, the new Kraven the Hunter is a young girl, Ed Brubaker is about to introduce Lady Bullseye and worst of the worst..... in the recent X-Men Legacy, Mr Sinister is now MS. SINISTER(Ms Jackson, if you're nasty).

Seriously, WTF?

Am I alone in hating this trend? It seems like many of Today's writers think pulling a gender-swap is equivalent to creating new, original ideas. How about creating NEW characters instead? I suppose that would require IMAGINATION and CREATIVITY.

Not that DC is bursting with original ideas, either. They have an entire section of their Universe made up of teenage counterparts of just about every single DC hero; the current TEEN TITANS being the worst.

---

Over the past year or so, there's been a common theme running through BOTH Marvel and DC; OFFSPRING of popular main characters. In just the past 12 months, we now have BATMAN's son (Damian), WOLVERINE'S son (Daken), HULK's son (Skaar) and SUPERMAN's "son" (Christopher.... really Zod/Ursa's son)....

...not to mention the characters in YOUNG AVENGERS and RUNAWAYS, whose cast includes the children of heroes and villains. (Honestly, I'm shocked they weren't the sexy teenage DAUGHTERS of those characters).

Monday, August 04, 2008

WATCHMEN was one of those comics I always thought should never be adapted into a movie. That said, I'm holding onto some hope for this one due to director ZACK SNYDER'strack record thus far; DAWN OF THE DEAD (remake) and 300. Anyway, above are some movie posters.*-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------*except for the top-left, which is the cover for the collected trade.